Download Astronomy of the Pyramids

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Astronomy of the Pyramids:
Show Script
Original show 2004 by Jennifer Moss Logan
Updated version 2013 by Eddie Goldstein
(with help from Alaina Reel, Matt Brownell, and Jess Wellington)
1/25/13
The ancient Egyptians built giant pyramids as tombs for the pharaohs. They were built exactly
North-South-East-West. Why did they build them this way? And, how were they able to line
them up so perfectly? The answer: they used the motions of the stars.
Script
Notes
Setup
1) Put foam wall sections
off to the sides of the
Space Screen.
2) Place merkhet, ropes,
2 stones, spinning
plate and stick off to
one side.
3) Microphone
4) Remote control
5) Lights ON
6) SELECT Astronomy
of Pyramids Show
7) Make Exhibit Wide
announcement
Hi Everybody. My name is XXXXX,
and this is the Astronomy of the
Pyramids show.
Media
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Script
Who knows what these are?
(get answers)
That’s right. They are pyramids. After
all, this is the Astronomy of the Pyramids
show.
Who knows where they are?
(Giza Egypt)
Actually, this is a modern picture taken
from a plane. You can see the modern
city of Giza in the background.
Who knows what they were used for?
(Tombs for the Pharaohs)
OK, who here knew that the pyramids
were built exactly North-South-EastWest?
That blue arrow points exactly North.
This show is about WHY the Egyptians
wanted to line their pyramids up to the
North. And, HOW they were able to do
it – using the stars.
4000 years ago, during the time of the
ancient Egyptians, these pyramids were
the wonders of the world. So, let’s go
back in time to see what was going on in
the Egyptians’ minds.
This was the Egyptian god, Ra.
Ra was the god that fed the plants, that
gave light to the Earth, that led people
through the course of the day.
Can anybody here think of something in
the sky that fits that bill?
(The Sun)
That’s right. The Sun.
To our way of thinking, the Sun
REPRESENTS Ra. But not to the
ancient Egyptians. When they saw the
Sun going across the sky, they thought
they were actually looking at Ra.
Notes
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Script
The other big player in this story is
Osiris. According to Egyptian mythology
he was a pharaoh. His brother who was
jealous of him chopped him up into
pieces and spread them all over Egypt.
Osiris’s wife (who was also his sister)
was so upset that she collected all of the
pieces, wrapped them up in linen, and he
came back to life as the god of the
underworld. He was the first Egyptian
mummy.
He is represented by this constellation.
Does anybody know what we call this
constellation?
(Orion)
When the Egyptians saw this, they
thought they were looking at Osiris.
Let’s watch Ra and Osiris going across
the sky.
They go across the sky in an East-West
path.
The Egyptians wanted to build their
pyramids lined up with the paths of the
gods so they could pick up some of the
“energy,” or “vibes,” from the gods.
That’s why they built them lined up
exactly North-South-East-West.
OK. If you wanted to find out today
which way is North, how would you do
it?
(Compass, GPS, North Star)
Those are all great. I used to look for the
North Star. And, for us, today, that
works.
You can see how the pole of the Earth
coincidently points toward the North
Star. But it wasn’t that way during the
time of the ancient Egyptians.
Notes
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MOVIE
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Script
Here’s why.
I’m going to spin this plate, just the way
the Earth spins around.
You can see that it holds it’s orientation
even when I move the stick.
But, if I tilt the plate like this, just like
the Earth is tilted, can you see how it
moves? That is called precession.
Believe it or not, the Earth also precesses.
It takes 26,000 years to do it.
That means that while the Earth points to
the North Star now, back in the time of
the Egyptians, it didn’t. So they needed
to come up with a different way to find
North.
They probably came up with lots of ways
to find North, but many of the methods
basically boiled down to this one which
I’m about to show you.
This represents where you are standing
out to the horizon.
If a star rises exactly to the East, it will
set exactly to the West.
So, if you were to connect a line between
where it rises and where it sets, you will
get an exact East-West line.
How many of you are with me?
Great.
But, if a different star rises in a different
place, like “this much” away from East. .
. it will set that “same amount” away
from West.
Notes
Optional Spinning Plate
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Script
Then, if you connect where that star rises
to where it sets, you will still get an exact
East-West line.
Notes
Media
Still with me?
That means that you can use any star,
mark where it rises, mark where it sets,
connect them up, and you get an exact
East-West line. It doesn’t matter what
star you use!
That’s what we’re going to do. We’re
going to pick a star, mark where it rises
and sets, connect those points and get an
East-West line.
Let’s pick a bright star to follow. Sirius
is a good one. It’s bright and very near
Orisis, so it’s easy to find.
OK, all we have to do is see where Sirius
rises, run out to the horizon and put a flag
there, then wait until it sets, run out to the
horizon and put a flag there, then take a
rope, connect the two flags and we’ve got
it. No problem.
Actually, there is a problem. First of all,
when you run out to the horizon, the
horizon isn’t there, it’s always farther off
in the distance.
And, you can’t even have someone else
hold a flag out there and tell him to move
left or right because you don’t have any
phone to call him. How are you going to
tell him which way to go.
We’ll have to come up with another way.
What I am going to show you is just one
of the many ways that the Egyptians
might have used, but they all worked on
basically the same principle.
MOVIE
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Script
We’ll build a wall and sort of make our
own horizon.
So, instead of marking where Sirius rises
and sets on the real horizon, I’ll mark the
spots on this stone horizon.
This is what the Egyptians called a
merkhet. I’ll put it in the center of the
circle and use it to sight along.
Notes
If you click into this movie
when the last one is in the
daytime, it will look smoother.
Take out the two foam rubber
walls and place them
touching, but sticking out
from, the screen to make it
look like a semi circle.
Media
PAUSED MOVIE
Put the merkhet in the center
of the imaginary semi circle.
OK. I need someone to help me out.
(Pick a volunteer and hand him or her a
stone.)
Please stand behind this wall (left) and
move this stone back and forth for me
while I line it up with Sirius.
(You look through the merkhet towards
Sirius. Have your volunteer move the
stone on the wall until it lines up with
Sirius.)
Then click to make the movie
start again.
The movie will automatically
stop when rising Sirius lines
up with the top of the wall.
PAUSED MOVIE
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Script
Now, let’s wait until Sirius sets behind
the other side of the wall. I need another
helper.
(Pick another helper and have him or her
line up a stone with the setting Sirius,
according you your directions as you
sight through the merkhet.)
Notes
The movie will automatically
stop when setting Sirius lines
up with the top of the wall.
Media
PAUSED MOVIE
We’ve marked where Sirius rises and
sets. Now lets stretch a rope between
those two spots.
(Hand the loop of the rope with the red
tape to the volunteer on the left. Hand
the loop with the black tape to the
volunteer on the right. Have them stretch
the ropes over their stones and pull
tight.)
These ropes make a perfect East-West
line.
How many of you are with me?
OK. Now that we have an East-West
line, how do we make a North-South
line?
May need an extra click.
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Script
The Egyptians knew that if you made a
rope triangle with the sides 3-units, 4units, and 5-units long, and you pulled it
tight, it would automatically make a right
triangle.
They didn’t know why it worked.
Pythagoras wouldn’t figure that out until
more than 1500 years later. But, they
knew that it worked.
Notes
(Have volunteers hold onto their loops
while you take the third loop and pull it
tightly to form a triangle. Hold your
loop high so that the audience can see
the triangle.)
So, this part of the rope must point
exactly North-South.
(Thanks volunteers and send them back
to their seats. Put the rope away.)
So, that is our story of Astronomy of the
Pyramids. They were built to line up
with the paths of the gods across the
skies. And the way that the Egyptians
did it was by using the motions of the
stars.
The End
How to store the props on cart
 Foam walls
 Merkhet
 2 stones
 Rope triangle
 Spinning plate and stick
Store the props behind planetarium stage
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Script
Notes
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Questions and Answers
Did the pyramids align with magnetic North or polar North?
Polar North. Since the pyramids are made to align with the paths of the stars and Sun,
whose apparent movement is due to the rotation of the Earth, the result is that they are
aligned with polar North.
Don’t the stars and Sun have different rising and setting points at different times of
year?
The Sun does rise at different points throughout the year, but stars do not. While the time of
day/night when they rise and set changes, the location along the horizon (when seen from a
set viewing location) does not change. This is why they would have used a star, rather than
the Sun, to mark the artificial horizon.
Does precession play a part in this alignment of the pyramids?
Precession would not affect this method of finding East-West at all. Precession affects
where in the sky the North (and South) pole points, rather than the actual axis of the Earth.
Therefore, if you find the rising and setting points of a star now, then do the same thing in
several thousand years, the two resulting East-West lines will be exactly parallel.
Tell me more about the theory that they used the right-angled triangle to find the
North-South line.
The Rhind Papyrus (1832 BCE) gives historians an insight into the role of geometry in
ancient Egypt. The 3-4-5 triangle is one component of that. Today, we associate this
triangle geometry with the Pythagorean theorem. Pythagorus, a Greek, came much later,
and there is no evidence to suggest that the Egyptians understood this theorem. However,
they did understand that a 3-4-5 triangle rendered a right angle at one corner. In addition to
this written evidence, ropes with units marked by knots have been found. Some state that it
would be too difficult to get the accuracy we observe using ropes, since it is difficult to mark
units using knots, and the rope that would be needed to create a sufficiently sizeable triangle
would be prone to stretching. However, this is one possible method that they may have
used. See http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidorientation.htm for more ideas.
How did the ancient Egyptians view the planets?
The ancient Egyptians recognized that the 5 planets visible to the unaided eye plus the Sun
and Moon moved across the sky compared to the stars. They saw these as deities, often in
boats, crossing the sky.
Background materials (websites, videos, articles, links)

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pyramidorientation.htm - excellent article on
pyramid alignment, such as how they may have found the right angle, etc.
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
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/numbers.htm
http://php.math.unifi.it/archimede/archimede_NEW_inglese/curve/curve_giusti/prima.p
hp?id=1